Starting a new game (C-evo)
So you have the free game C-evo on your computer? Click the appropriate icon or file and you should get a screen with a pretty logo at top right and a mostly gray useful rectangle at bottom left. C-evo's "Start Screen" interface The game runs in full-screen mode at the resolution you have set your monitor at. On the Start Screen, one can see a big version of C-evo's logo in the upper right; it is purely decorative. There is a menu window, in the lower left part, which allows one to select how to start a game. At the top of the menu window are: *Three tabs, labelled "Map", "New Book", and "Earlier Books" *Two buttons, marked "?" and "X". Exit The "X" button exits C-evo and returns to the desktop; if you wish to go to another running application without quitting C-evo, it is possible to hit Alt+Tab (to do this in Windows XP, you will need to have at least one other program running when you start C-evo). On some systems that may leave you with the Start screen on top, in which case going to an open game should allow other windows to cover it. Options and other help The "?" button leads to a popup window that gives you help on the parameters you can choose to start C-evo, and that has buttons that let you explore the whole of the in-game Manual. Maps The "Map" tab gives you map options. There is a list of available predesigned maps that can be downloaded or came with your game download package, from which you may select. You may edit a map (remembering to show at least one starting point). The most important option for a random map is the size; you may choose one of six sizes of random maps, ranging from fairly small ("35%") to epic-size huge maps ("230%"). You can also choose the percentage of land on the map, in 5% increments from 10% to 100%. See Map (C-evo) for more detail. While it is possible to play a handmade map with C-evo, most games are probably played with random maps: when the game is started, the computer makes a map that has islands, continents, and water. Each game has a different looking map; no two games are the same as a result. Every game allows you to explore a new world. The "picture" you see on the menu screen is NOT what you will play on, but is a standard indication. Closing the map or clicking a selection returns you to the main screen with the chosen map indicated - though not shown in meaningful detail - in the multi-colored minimap or other image on the right of the rectangle. New game In C-evo parlance, a game is called a "book". "New Book" is what you use to start a new game. You can set: * the number of foreign nations, up to 14 (unless you are playing a scenario that sets a different number) * the difficulty level, in five classes ranging from "Beginner" (an extremely easy setting, where all of your opponents have to pay or accumulate about twice as much of anything as you do for any particular gain) to "Insane" (where you have to pay or accumulate about 67% more than what your opponents do) * the end date (2400 AD being the default) Clicking "Free Player Setup" allows other options, where you can specify the level of difficulty for each nation (from one bar - about 25% easier than standard - to three bars - 25% harder) and can specify which AI will be used if you have more than one installed. Your first game? If this is your first game, do the following: * Go to "Map" and choose a world size of 35% (the smallest allowed) with land mass 50%. * Go to "New Book", ensure that the checkbox "Free Player Setup" has no tick in it, choose the "Beginner" level of difficulty, and have: **0 foreign nations if you want a totally safe introduction to most of the mechanics of the game, or **1 or 2 foreign nations if you want to see a bit of the full gameplay with only a little risk. * Have the game end at 3000 AD. * Click on "Start" to start the game. C-evo may spend a couple of seconds randomly creating the world you will play on. Choose tribe When done with that rectangle, click "Start" and choose your tribe from the list of 15 displayed. It doesn't matter which tribe you play; the gameplay is the same. Tribes affect only how your units and cities look, and their default (changeable) names. Some of the standard colors are difficult to distinguish in borders and charts; try Persians, Russians, or Spanish for very distinctive colors. The standard list of 16 has Americans, Babylonians, British (all with English city names, no Irish, Scots, or Welsh!), Chinese, Egyptians, French, Germans, Greeks, Japanese, Mongols, Persians, Phoenicians, Romans, Russians, Spanish, Vikings. It may be possible to download other tribes from the C-evo website. Version 1.0 had Scots, not compatible with v 1.2.0. 4000 BC: Capital built Clicking after you choose your tribe brings you to the start of the game, where you may read, then must click OK to, the introductory message. You start the game with just: *a single city, in which a Palace has been built, and which has a population of four, each of whom is "working" one of the 21 available tiles and harvesting a certain number of units of food and possibly some "material" ("Shields" in Civ2 parlance) and trade per turn *a single settler unit, which can improve land tiles or form its own new city; it blinks to show you that it is awaiting orders The C-evo game software chooses an initial location (usually on irrigated plains) for your first city. If there is ocean within sight, you may see part of your territory border. Click on the city to see detail of it in a pop-up window over the map; you can move the pop-up by dragging it by its title panel. See what the city is proposing to build and which tiles are being worked. Note that one of the population must work the city tile (by contrast with some other games). In the city window, you may change what is being built and you may reassign workers to other tiles or (rarely) tell them to stay at home as "police". Start playing Think about what you will do. A turn-based game has no time constraints apart from real-world demands! You can make further changes to settings before making any moves. From this point on, this wiki has several guidance pages, mostly in Category:Guides (C-evo). The first such page that you want could be C-evo: Strategies for first few turns. Category:Guides (C-evo)